Nicole Woolsey Biggart is a Sociologist (Ph.D. University of California, Berkeley) and Research Professor at the Graduate School of Management at the University of California, Davis where she served as Dean (2003-2009). She was subsequently Director of the UC Davis Energy Efficiency Center (2010-2015) and Chevron Chair in Energy Efficiency where she became interested in the ways social institutions shape energy availability and use.

Nicole Biggart has studied social networks in the direct selling industry, in the global automotive industry, in Asian business groups, and in rotating savings and credit associations. Her theoretical work draws particularly on the scholarship of Max Weber. She has worked collaboratively on the Systems of Exchange typology, an economic sociology site for the public and scholars. She is a Fellow of the AAAS. Some of her publications can be found here.